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Grammar Analysis: Numbers 14:34

Text

Hebrew (BHS): בְּמִסְפַּ֨ר הַיָּמִ֜ים אֲשֶׁר־תַּרְתֶּ֣ם אֶת־הָאָרֶץ֮ אַרְבָּעִ֣ים יֹום֒ יֹ֣ום לַשָּׁנָ֞ה יֹ֣ום לַשָּׁנָ֗ה תִּשְׂאוּ֙ אֶת־עֲוֹנֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם אַרְבָּעִ֖ים שָׁנָ֑ה וִֽידַעְתֶּ֖ם אֶת־תְּנוּאָתִֽי׃

Transliteration (key phrase): bəmispar hayyāmîm ăšer-tartem ʾet-hāʾāreṣ ʾarbāʿîm yôm — yôm laššānāh yôm laššānāh — tiśʾû ʾet-ʿăwōnōtêkem ʾarbāʿîm šānāh wîdaʿtem ʾet-tənûʾātî.

KJV: "After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise."

Word-by-Word Parsing

Source: hebrew_parser.py --verse "Num 14:34" (ETCBC BHSA)

# Hebrew Lemma Parsing Gloss
1 בְּ ב Prep in / according to
2 מִסְפַּ֨ר מספר Noun.ms.Cst number (of)
3 הַ ה Art the
4 יָּמִ֜ים יום Noun.mp.Abs days
5 אֲשֶׁר אשׁר Conj (relative) which / that
6 תַּרְתֶּ֣ם תור Verb.Qal.Perf.2mp ye searched / spied out
7 אֶת את Prep (obj. marker) —
8 הָ ה Art the
9 אָרֶץ֮ ארץ Noun.s.Abs land
10 אַרְבָּעִ֣ים ארבע Noun.mp.Abs forty
11 יֹום֒ יום Noun.ms.Abs day
12 יֹ֣ום יום Noun.ms.Abs a day
13 לַ ל Prep (+ def. art.) for the
14 שָּׁנָ֞ה שׁנה Noun.fs.Abs year
15 יֹ֣ום יום Noun.ms.Abs a day
16 לַ ל Prep (+ def. art.) for the
17 שָּׁנָ֗ה שׁנה Noun.fs.Abs year
18 תִּשְׂאוּ֙ נשׂא Verb.Qal.Impf.2mp ye shall bear
19 אֶת את Prep (obj. marker) —
20 עֲוֹנֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם עון Noun.mp.Abs+2mp suf. your iniquities
21 אַרְבָּעִ֖ים ארבע Noun.mp.Abs forty
22 שָׁנָ֑ה שׁנה Noun.fs.Abs year
23 וִֽ ו Conj (waw) and
24 ידַעְתֶּ֖ם ידע Verb.Qal.Perf.2mp (weqatal) ye shall know
25 אֶת את Prep (obj. marker) —
26 תְּנוּאָתִֽי תנואה Noun.fs.Abs+1cs suf. my opposition / alienation

(Bolded rows = the yôm laššānāh yôm laššānāh formula.)

Clause Structure

Source: hebrew_parser.py --clause "Num 14:34"

  • Clause 1 (xYq0, main): בְּמִסְפַּר הַיָּמִים … יֹום לַשָּׁנָה יֹום לַשָּׁנָה תִּשְׂאוּ אֶת־עֲוֹנֹתֵיכֶם אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה
  • [Adju] Adjunct: "By the number of the days … forty days, a day for the year, a day for the year" (the entire time-equivalency phrase is classed as a single fronted adjunct).
  • [Pred] Predicate: tiśʾû ("ye shall bear") — Qal yiqtol 2mp.
  • [Objc] Object: ʾet-ʿăwōnōtêkem ("your iniquities").
  • [Time] Time adjunct: ʾarbāʿîm šānāh ("forty years") — the computed output of the conversion.
  • Clause 2 (xQt0, subordinate relative): אֲשֶׁר תַּרְתֶּם אֶת־הָאָרֶץ — "which ye spied out the land." Relative clause modifying hayyāmîm.
  • Clause 3 (WQt0, weqatal): וִידַעְתֶּם אֶת־תְּנוּאָתִי — "and ye shall know my opposition." Weqatal chained to the main yiqtol, continuing future/modal force ("and [so] ye shall come to know…").

No construct chain is present beyond mispar hayyāmîm ("number of [the] days"). All other nominals are absolute.

Key Grammatical Features

1. The distributive formula yôm laššānāh yôm laššānāh (words 12–17) — pure conversion rubric

  • Form: Two identical appositional cola, each composed of an absolute noun (yôm, "day") + lamed-preposition le- prefixed to the article (la- = lə- + ha-) + absolute noun (šānāh, "year"). No verb, no conjunction, no construct binding — just repeated juxtaposition.
  • Function — distributive lamed: The preposition lə- on šānāh is the classic distributive / ratio / "reckoning" lamed (Joüon-Muraoka §133d; GKC §123c; Waltke–O'Connor §11.2.10d). It answers the question "at what rate?" / "per what unit?" — "a day for / per / corresponding to a year."
  • Function — reduplication for distributive-universalizing force: Hebrew marks distribution by repeating the noun phrase (cf. GKC §123c–d; Joüon-Muraoka §135d). The doubling yôm laššānāh yôm laššānāh is not stylistic filler; it is the grammatical way of saying "each and every day counts as one year." The two cola together = a fixed one-to-one mapping between two time-series, not a poetic flourish.
  • Definite article on šānāh: laššānāh (with article) vs. anarthrous yôm is a recognized idiom for expressing a standard unit ("the year" = "per year as a fixed measure"), parallel to English "a day to the year."
  • Significance: The verse itself supplies the interpretive key in its surrounding arithmetic: forty yôm of spying (v. 34a) → forty šānāh of wandering (v. 34b). The middle formula is the explicit conversion rule that licenses the equation. This is the lexical/syntactic locus of the "day-for-year principle" cited in later prophetic chronology (cf. Ezek 4:6, which uses nearly identical syntax: yôm laššānāh yôm laššānāh nətattîw lāk).

2. tartem (word 6) — Qal perfect 2mp in a relative clause with past reference

  • Form: Verb.Qal.Perf.2mp from תור ("to spy out, reconnoitre"). Perfect aspect in a relative clause headed by ăšer denotes an already-completed past action.
  • Significance: Anchors the "forty days" as a historically completed event (the reconnaissance of Num 13) — the known quantity on the left side of the day→year equation.

3. tiśʾû (word 18) — Qal yiqtol 2mp as legal/sentencing imperfective

  • Form: Verb.Qal.Impf.2mp from נשׂא ("to lift, carry, bear"). Idiom nāśāʾ ʿāwōn = "to bear / be accountable for iniquity" — standard priestly-legal phrase for assuming the consequences of guilt (cf. Lev 5:1, 17; 7:18; Num 14:33).
  • Function: Yiqtol here has modal/declarative future force ("ye shall bear" = divine decree fixing future liability), not simple prediction. It is the sentence handed down.
  • Significance: The main verb is what the distributive formula modifies: the duration of bearing iniquity is calibrated to the duration of the spying, via the day=year ratio.

4. wîdaʿtem (word 24) — weqatal continuation

  • Form: Verb.Qal.Perf.2mp with prefixed waw (wəqātal). Despite the perfect morphology, its syntactic role after a future-modal yiqtol is to continue the future/consequent sense.
  • Function: "And [as a result] ye shall know / come to experience." Consecutive weqatal often marks a logical or resultative next step.
  • Significance: Links the sentence of forty years to an experiential outcome — the people will come to know YHWH's tənûʾāh ("opposition / frustration / alienation"). The chronological punishment is not merely durative; it is pedagogical.
  • Grammar reference: ../hebrew/syntax-waw-conjunction.md

5. Numerical apposition: ʾarbāʿîm yôm … ʾarbāʿîm šānāh

  • Form: Cardinal number (ms plural form ʾarbāʿîm) + singular absolute noun (yôm / šānāh). Hebrew standardly pairs tens with the singular of the counted noun (GKC §134e).
  • Function: Not a construct chain; pure numerical apposition. The parallel "forty days … forty years" brackets the verse and is the a priori / a posteriori of the conversion: input (40 days, empirically known) ↔ output (40 years, judicially imposed).
  • Significance: The two "forty"-phrases are deliberately symmetric; the yôm laššānāh yôm laššānāh colon is the bridge that explains the symmetry rather than merely asserting it.

The Day-for-Year Formula in Hebrew Syntax (Summary)

The construction noun₁ + lə-(+art.) + noun₂ — reduplicated — encodes a proportional substitution:

yôm     la-š-šānāh     yôm     la-š-šānāh
day    for-the-year    day    for-the-year
[unit A]  [rate marker: per unit B]   [reduplicated for distributive scope]

Reading grammatically, the formula says: "(take) one day → (assign) one year; (take) one day → (assign) one year" — i.e., a fixed 1:1 conversion applied distributively across the whole set of counted days. Nothing in the syntax limits this to the immediate Numbers-13/14 context; the formula is a reusable rule-expression, which is why Ezek 4:6 can redeploy it verbatim in a different prophetic-symbolic setting.

Cross-References

  • Parallel formula: Ezekiel 4:6 — יֹום לַשָּׁנָה יֹום לַשָּׁנָה נְתַתִּיו לָךְ ("a day for a year, a day for a year, I have appointed it to thee"), explicitly applying the same syntax to prophetic-symbolic day-counts.
  • Related idiom: nāśāʾ ʿāwōn — "bear iniquity" (Lev 5:1; 7:18; Num 14:33; 18:1; Ezek 4:4–6 immediately pairs this idiom with the same distributive formula).
  • Grammar library:
  • Waw conjunction / weqatal continuation: ../hebrew/syntax-waw-conjunction.md
  • (Concept entry for distributive lamed and nominal reduplication — not yet in library; candidate for a new canonical entry, e.g. hebrew/syntax-distributive-lamed.md.)
  • Word studies:
  • יוֹם / yôm — ../../word-studies/H3117-yowm.md
  • שָׁנָה / šānāh — ../../word-studies/H8141-shaneh.md